The Buzz: Kashkari said he can’t afford to self-fund a 2014 campaign for governor

Any Republicans hoping for someone with a Meg Whitman-sized checkbook to take on Gov. Jerry Brown next year won’t find their savior in Neel Kashkari, a former U.S. Treasury Department official who is laying the groundwork for a 2014 campaign.

Any Republicans hoping for someone with a Meg Whitman-sized checkbook to take on Gov. Jerry Brown next year won’t find their savior in Neel Kashkari, a former U.S. Treasury Department official who is laying the groundwork for a 2014 campaign.

Kashkari said Wednesday that his assets total less than $5 million and that he cannot self-fund a campaign.

Kashkari, who is expected to join former Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado and Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, R-Twin Peaks, in the field of Republicans bidding to unseat Brown, said the Democratic incumbent is “going to have more resources than all the Republican candidates combined” but suggested some donors might contribute to improve the party’s standing in a Democratic state.

“A lot of donors think that Jerry Brown is, if not impossible to beat, very hard to beat, but a lot of donors say we need to make the Republican Party the party of economic opportunity,” Kashkari said in an interview.

Whitman, Brown’s 2010 opponent, spent $144 million of her own money in a losing effort. Maldonado has reported collecting about $150,000 since July, while Donnelly has raised about $123,000.